Utility land security: since 9/11, electric co-ops have mended--and strengthened--their security fences

摘要

It's not as if there were startling lapses in security--no sleeping guards or Web site pages with power plant diagrams. But the people responsible for the security of electric utilities will tell you they weren't doing enough in the fall of 2001. Even at utilities with obvious security concerns, some fences weren't mended, gates weren't closed (or guarded) and outside lights weren't on. Entry codes, security badges and passwords were not taken seriously at some power plants. "The attitude was that it couldn't happen here. We don't think that way any more," says Dale Winter, vice president of operations for Hoosier Energy in Bloomington, Ind., a generation and transmission cooperative serving 16 southern Indiana distribution systems.